Publisher: Sentai Filmworks (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 45 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 1993 – 1994
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
I first came across this series in 1997 when I got a VHS fansub copy of the first part of “Megazone 23”, which had the first two episodes stuck on the end of the tape. Yeah, like those two shows go together. I was kind of only mildly impressed with the show and almost forgot about it until Manga, for some unknown reason, decided to release the movie version of the show about a decade ago (Wikiipedia says that Manga in the UK released “only the last few episodes of the series”, but that’s just a load of horse shit. Manga UK released the movie, same as the US). I couldn’t be bothered with the film as the TV series hadn’t been released. That was until Sentai took the very strange decision to licence the TV series. I mean it really is the oldest title in their catalogue, a couple years shy of two decades old. Anyway, whatever, I’m always up for some old stuff.
The show is based on a manga which ran in Shonen Sunday for pretty much the entire length of the 1990’s. The show and manga follows the exploits of Reiko Mikami who is a Ghost Sweeper, a relatively modern occupation that is essentially all about exorcism. Mikami only really cares about money. She charges in the millions of yen for her services. She has a male teenage assistant in the final year of senior high school, Tadao Yokoshima, who is a lecherous idiot. He’s sort of like Ryo Saeba with all the good qualities taken out in the body of Ataru Moroboshi. The first episode also adds Okinu as Mikami’s second assistant, a young a female ghost who was a sacrifice to a mountain god several hundred years ago. A couple of other Sweepers pop up from time to time; Meiko Rokudou, a vacant and meek rich girl who has 12 Shikigami (monsters) hiding in her shadow whom she can control, and Emi Ogasawara, Mikami’s main business rival. There are a number of other infrequent characters like Dr Chaos, a old mad genius who has a female robot. There’s also a catholic priest, Father Karasu and his offsider Pete, whom Emi has the hots for, but the feelings aren’t mutual. Rounding out the regulars is occult store owner Yakuchin, who is just as perverted as Yokoshima.
The typical set of almost any “Ghost Sweeper Mikami” episode will have the fiery and leggy redhead (that’d be Mikami) about to perform and exorcism for a client, usually for an astronomical fee. Yokoshima, who is nothing more than a dogsbody, will try to get a look at Mikami’s body or make some lecherous remark and will get smashed in the face or beat up by Mikami. Repeat by 45 times. Well OK, it’s not that bad, but the show is rather formulaic at its core. I could not really get into the show for the first few episodes. Once you get used to the characters, it’s not too bad. To a large degree the whole Mikami abusing Yokoshima thing as a plot device does fade a bit into the background. However Mikami’s obsession with making money and her cold heartiness towards just about everyone around here does get a bit tiresome. There’s also that weird humour to do with poverty that seems to crop up a bit with anime. Here it has to do with Mikami only paying Yokoshima around 250 yen an hour while she rakes in billions of yen from her clients.
The thing which stuck me watching this show for the first time since I last watched my fansub more than a decade ago, was how it looks so horribly aged. If it wasn’t for the main character designs and the copyright date, I think it could easily be mistaken for a show that is at least two to five years older. The animation is pretty shocking a fair bit of the time. Talk about limited animation. At least once during an episode there will be a “comedic moment” where someone says something stupid, and the cast freezes on the spot with their jaws wide open in disbelief. Usually these moments go on for at least a long five or ten seconds. Essentially it’s a blatant and very obvious cel saving technique. I mean sure, this is a Toei Animation production and some of their animation is rather low budget to say the least, but this money saving technique takes the cake. It just looks so cheap and nasty. Add in rather simplistic backgrounds and some rather simplistic designs, and, well, this is show looks rather bland. In conclusion, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. There’s a lot subpar elements, but a lot of laugh out loud humour as well. 6 out of 10.
"Ghost Sweeper Mikami - Gokuraku Daisuken!"
Publisher: Manga Entertainment (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 60 minutes
Production Date: 1994
Currently in Print (as of writing): No
The movie version of “Ghost Sweeper Mikami” involves the resurrection of the legendary vampire Nosferatu, who has naturally been living (or is that unliving?) in Japan for a few hundred years. He is temporarily defeated by Oda Nobunaga (whom very few outside of Japanese history buffs would know) in the 1500’s using a special sprit stone tipped spear. Oda then sends the spirit stone tipped spear through time and space to the office of Reiko Mikami. She is then informed that Nosferatu is about to be resurrected again and is asked to defeat him. Along with Yokoshima, Okina, Father Karasu and Pete (annoyingly subtitled as Peat on this DVD), they arrive at his lair, which seems to be in some sort of subspace underneath the Tokyo Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Mikami inadvertently resurrects the vampire in the general chaos of battling his minions. Nosferatu and his underling then set about enslaving Tokyo as their first step in taking over the world by turning most of its inhabitants into zombies. While Mikiami and the rest of her offsiders rest up the hospital from their first encounter with Nosferatu, the remainder of the usual cast that has yet to make an appearance head off to defeat him.
A few months after the TV series finished its broadcast, this film was released in cinemas in a triple feature with the obscure “Heisei Period Dog Tale Bow” and the more familiar “Ranma ½: One Flew Over the Kuno's Nest (Ranma ½: Decisive Battle! Team Ranma vs. The Legendary Phoenix)”. Oddly enough, the flyers and poster give this film top billing. At least with the movie version, the animation is quite good. The story is absurd as anything in any of the TV episodes. For me in general, the series falters on the edge of hilarity and utter crapness. There are really funny moments in the film and certainly a lot of times when it was to teeter off the edge into the lost of world of shite. All of the regular characters appear throughout the film. It’s kind of predictable really. I also note that there is that same comedic moment in the film where some says something silly or shocking and everyone just freezes. It’s overused, unfunny and really awkward. To say something nice about the film, I’ll make mention of some of the familiar voices in the movie and TV series that I enjoyed. In particular Mariko Kouda (Miki from “Marmalade Boy”, Yuri from “Dirty Pair Flash”) as Okinu and Shigeru Chiba as Dr Chaos were fun. Another famous voice actress of the period, Michie Tomizawa, plays Emi Ogasawara.
Just to reiterate, no, the UK DVD isn’t the last couple of TV episodes. It’s identical to the US disc which is the movie (see here for a review of the UK disc. The UK DVD cover artwork is more interesting too, in my opinion). However not only is this film 4:3 letterboxed, the video is just horrendous. I’m sure an LD copy would look a million time better. It’s possibly one of the worst looking DVDs I’ve ever seen. At the very least Manga have placed the subtitles so when you zoom in to get the fake 16:9 view, the subs are readable and in picture. The translation is OK, but at points subs don’t appear when a fair wack of dialogue is spoken, and some liberties are taken with translation. None of the songs are subbed. The dub apparently has all new music, but I didn’t watch it. Manga's extras are as as shit as they've always been. One can only wonder why Manga decided to pick this up. You really need to see the TV series to get what is going on at times. Overall it the fun bits managed to overshadow the crap bits. Still it’s all a bit mediocre. 6 out of 10.
Remaining Backlog: 24 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).
No comments:
Post a Comment